Stevens No 41 Tip Up Single Shot Pocket Pistol

SN 19814

Stevens Arms Company, well known for its Tip-up Pistols, Boy's
Rifles, and Ideal Target and Sporting Rifles, got its start at
Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts in 1864. Founder Joshua Stevens was a
New England toolmaker who had gained experience in firearms
manufacture while employed at various times by C. B. Allen, Eli
Whitney, Samuel Colt, and Edwin Wesson. While employed as
production superintendent for the Chicopee Falls-based
Massachusetts Arms Co., he filed a successful patent claim for
improvements to percussion pistols produced by this firm. Stevens
received a patent for a tip-up pistol design during the same year
in which he, along with financial backers W. B. Fay and James
Taylor, founded the company that bore his name. Although a producer
of firearms, J. Stevens and Company's primary source of income was
derived through the manufacture and sale of machine tools.

The company's early years were lean ones, with production
carried out in a former Chicopee Falls grist mill by fewer than 60
employees. J. Stevens and Co. underwent an expansion in 1880, and
in 1886, the firm changed its name to J. Stevens Arms & Tool
Co. The original partners continued to hold principle ownership in
the company, even though they had dissolved their partnership
agreement. Ten years later, J. Stevens bookkeeper I. M. Page bought
out the shares of both Joshua Stevens and James Taylor, thus
becoming the firm's president and majority owner. Under Page's
leadership, the Stevens Arms and Tool Company underwent a period of
rapid expansion.

Manufacturing facilities and payroll grew significantly, with
factory space doubling between 1895 and 1898, and the number of
employees increased to 150 during the same period. Shortly after
the dawn of the new century, the firm, which now employed over 900
workers in a 270,000 square-feet manufacturing plant, claimed to be
the largest producer of sporting arms in the world.

In 1901, Stevens Arms & Tool Co. purchased the Cataract Tool
& Optical Company of Buffalo, New York. After relocating this
new acquisition to Chicopee Falls, Stevens began to produce its own
line of telescopic rifle and pistol sights. Stevens scopes included
integral eyepieces and crosshairs that were sealed in solid dust-
and moisture-proof brass tubes. This concept marked a major advance
in optical sights, as previous designs employed a separate eyepiece
that was fastened to the scope tube with several screws. Stevens
scopes also required no focus adjustment, as did the products of
competing firms. Optical sights continued to be a part of the
Stevens line until the First World War, when the company sold its
interests to Lyman Gun Sight Company of Middlefield, Connecticut.
As Stevens Arms and Tool Co. continued its phenomenal growth,
firearms replaced machine tools as a revenue source.

By 1915, Stevens Arms was a leading manufacturer of smallbore
target and hunting arms. The firm established offices in both New
York and London, as well as on the European continent, in
Australia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The original Stevens
line of spur trigger tip-up single-shot pistols, tip-up rifles, and
"pocket rifles" gave way to offhand target pistols and the
highly-regarded Ideal rifle. These lever-action single-shot falling
block rifles were available in a variety of chamberings ranging
from .22 rimfire to .44-40 caliber. Options included both round and
half-round/half octagonal blued barrels; casehardened actions;
checkered deluxe- and select-grade walnut butt stocks and fore
ends; shotgun, crescent, and Schuetzen-style butts available with
or without a cheek piece and/or pistol grip; double-set triggers;
palm rest; Globe interchangeable front sight; and Vernier tang rear
peep sight. The single-shot Ideal "Walnut Hill" No. 49 rifle
represented the pinnacle of Stevens Arms products.

In addition to its deluxe features, Walnut Hill rifles also
established a reputation for accuracy, and this combination ensured
the success of this design for over fifty years. Original models
sometimes sell for several thousand dollars in the current
collectibles market.

Between 1901 and 1903, Stevens rifles were available with
special eight-groove barrels produced under the supervision of
master barrelmaker Harry M. Pope. Some Stevens-Pope barrels were
also made for the U.S. Army's Krag rifle. The Stevens-Pope
agreement covered a period of five years, but a series of
disagreements between the parties caused Pope to sever his
relationship with Stevens Arms in 1903.

Rifles featuring Pope barrels and bearing the "Stevens-Pope"
stamp on the barrel top bring a premium among shooters and
collectors. Stevens is perhaps best known for their popular line of
smallbore caliber rifles. The 4 ?-pound Stevens Favorite featured
interchangeable breech blocks and blued barrels, as well as a
casehardened receiver and walnut stocks. Options included tang rear
sights and deluxe checkered wood. The Favorite was sold in both
Boys' and Ladies' Models. The Sure Shot, Crack Shot, Little Scout,
Marksman, and Junior rifles represented less-expensive entries in
the Stevens product line, and the company also produced both pump
and lever-action repeating rifles, and even shotguns.

During the First World War, the firm's manufacturing facilities
were turned over to New England Westinghouse Company for production
of Moisin Nagant bolt-action rifles for the Imperial Russian
government. Although the firm once again underwent reorganization
during this period, the Stevens factory remained under the control
of New England Westinghouse for the remainder of the war, and that
company's Moisin Nagant contract represented the only period in J.
Stevens corporate history that military arms were produced in the
Chicopee Falls plant.

In 1920, J. Stevens Arms Co. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Savage Arms Corporation when it was acquired by the Utica arms
maker. Under Savage ownership, the Stevens line grew to include
bolt-action long arms. Parent company Savage relocated its
operations from Utica, New York to Westfield, Massachusetts in
1960, at which time the Stevens Arms factory in Chicopee Falls
closed. Even though Stevens Arms has seen many changes over its
history, the company's name has survived, continuing in use up to
the present day. For a long period, the Stevens name was all that
remained of the New England firm, however, this situation changed
in 1999, when Savage Arms once again began to produce the Stevens
Favorite Rifle under the designation Model 30G.